Web-printing mechanism



(No Modem 3 Sheets-Sheet 1.

L. O. GROWELL. WEB PRINTING MECHANISM.

No. 419,832. Patented Jan. 21, 1890.

(No Model.) 3 Sheets-Sheet 2.

- L. O. OROWELL.

WEB PRINTING MECHANISM.

No. 419,832. v Patented Jan. 21, 1890.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE,

LUTHER C. CROVVELL, OF BROOKLYN, NEYV YORK.

/WEB-PRINTING MECHANISM.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 419,832, dated January21, 1890.

Application filed March 7, 1888. serial No. 266,393. (No model.)

.To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, LUTHER O. OROWELL, a citizen of the United States,residing at Brooklyn, county of Kings, and State of New York, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Web Printing Mechanism,fully described and represented in the following specification and theaccompanying drawings, forming a part of the same.

This invention relates to web-perfecting printing mechanism which is soorganized as to permit either side of the web to be first printed,according as it maybe desired in any particular case.

In perfecting a web from an ordinary rotary web-perfecting printingmechanism the side of the web first printed is necessarily brought incontact with the second impression-cylinder as the second side of theweb is printed, and from this it results that the side of the web firstprinted necessarily receives more or less offset, and is thus smutted toa greater or less degree. This is a difficulty which is inherent in thisclass of printingmachines, and in order to prevent this offset frominjuring the appearance of the printed product it has always beencustomary to so organize the machine andarrange the forms that the sideof the web first printed would, in the product which was to be producedupon the machine, contain the matter which it'was least important shouldpresent a perfectlyclean appearance--that is to say, if the publisherofa particular newspaper desired the inside pages, or what are usually theeditorial pages, of his paper to present the cleaner ap pearance, thenthe machine would be so organized and the forms so arranged that theside of the web containing these pages would be printed last; or, on theother hand, ifthe publisher desired the outside pages or newspages topresent the cleaner appearance, then the machine would be so organizedand the forms so arranged as to print the side of the web containingthese pages last. If the machine was not provided with a foldingdeliyery apparatus, it was not necessary to take this matter intoconsideration, as the order of printing the inside and outside pages ofthe paper could be changed at pleasure by simply changing the forms fromone form cylinder to the other; but where the machine was provided witha folding delivery apparatus, which of late years has almost always beenrequired, this could not be accomplished, because the direction in whichthe sheet was folded was always the same, and if the forms for one sideof the sheet were changed from one cylinder to the other thefolding'would not be accomplished so as to bring the pages in properrelation to each other in the folded product. This being the case, itwas always necessary before constructing the machine to ascertain fromthe publisher which pages of his paper he desired should present thecleaner appearance or should be free from offset, and then construct themachine accordingly. As the re quirements of publishers were not uniformin this particular, it was impossible to construct the machines inadvance and have them in stock to fill orders, except by constructingand keeping on hand two styles from which to select, and this, owing tothe expensive character of the machines, was of course Very undesirable.Again, it frequently happened that publishers desired, after obtaining amachine, to change the arrangement of the matter in their papers in sucha way that the matter which it was desired should present the cleanerappearance would be upon the opposite side of the web from what wasoriginally intended, and their inability to accomplish this resulted inmuch annoyance and inconvenience. Again, it frequently happened that thesame machine was used for printing different papers or differenteditions of the same paper-as, for example, a daily and weeklyedition--and in these diiferent papers or editions it was frequentlydesirable that the cleaner pages should be upon one side of the web inone case and upon the reverse in another, and the inability toaccomplish this also resulted in annoyance and detracted materially fromthe value of the machines.

It is the object of the present invention to remove this difficulty andto so organize a printing mechanism that either side of the web can beprinted first; and to that end the invention consists in an organizedprintingmachine having its form and impression cylinders andleading-rolls for p resenting the web thereto arranged in such a manneras to permit this result to be accomplished.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a diagrammatic View of aweb-perfecting printing mechanism organized according to the presentinvention. Fig. 2 is a similar view showing the course of the web whenpresented to the machine so as to be first printed upon the sideopposite to that which is first printed when the web is presented asshown in Fig. 1. Figs. 8 and 4: are similar views illustrating anorganization in which the web is led into the machine below instead ofabove the printing-cylinders. Figs. 5 and 6 are similar views showingthe printing mechanism combined with two forms of folding deliverymechanism.

Referring to said figures, it is to be understood that A B represent theform-cylinders, and O I) the impression-cylinders, of the machine. Thesecylinders are of the ordinary form and are equipped in the usual manner.The relative arrangement of the cylinders shown is, all thingsconsidered, that which I regard as the best5but this arrangement may bewidely varied without departing from the essential features of theinvention. The form-cylinders A B are provided with the usual form-rollsa and with ink-distributing mechanisms,(represented by the cylinder androlls 1) 0.)

Located upon that side of the impressioncylinders from which the web isled into the machine is a leading-roll 2, around which the web passes tothe printing-cylinders, and this roll is so positioned that the web maybe led around it and pass thence to either pair of theprinting-cylinders.

Located upon the side of the impressioncylinders from which the web isled from the machine there is or are located one or more leading andregister rolls 3 4, around which the web passes as it leaves theprinting mechanism, and these rolls are so positioned with relation tothe impression-cylinders and to each other that the web, being led tothem from either of the cylinders O D, will travel exactly the samedistance before arriving at the delivery mechanism, so that it willpreserve the proper register with the cuttingcylinders and other partsof that mechanism.

With the machine thus organized let it be assumed that it is desirableto so perfect the web that the printed matter upon what is the underside of the web as it is led tothe machine shall present the cleanerappearance. 'In that case the web E will be led from the roll of paper,and after passing over one or more suitable leading-rolls 5 6 will beled around the roll 2 and between the cylinders B D, as shown in Fig. 1.In passing between the cylinders B D the web will be printed upon itsupper side, and after being thus printed it will be led around thecylinder D and between the cylinders A 0, where it will be printed uponits opposite side, or

what is the under side of the web as it was led to the machine. Inpassing around the cylinder 0 to be printed upon its second side theside of the web first printed will be brought next the blanket upon thecylinder 0, and thereby be caused to receive more or less offset, whichwill impair the appearance of the printing upon that side of the web toa greater or less extent. The opposite side of the web, however, whichis printed by the cylinder A, will receive no offset, and will thuspresent the cleaner appearance. After being perfected the web will passaround the rolls 3 4 and thence tothe folding delivery mechanism G. Ifthe folding delivery mech anism is of the form and arrangement shown inFig. 5, (which is one of the ordinary and well-known forms oflongitudinal folders,) the cleaner side of the web will be upon theinside of the folded product; or, if the folder is of the form andarrangement shown in Fig. 6, (which is one of the well-known forms ofrotary folders,) the cleaner side of the web will be upon the outside ofthe folded product.

'If, however, for any reason, a publisher should prefer that what is theupper side of the web as it is led to the machine should present thecleaner appearance after being printed, the web will be led around theroll 2 in the opposite direction and have its under side first printedby the cylinders A C, after which it will be led between the cylinders BD with its printed side next to the blanket upon the cylinder D. In thiscase, the same as in the first case, the offset will be taken by theside of the web first printed; but this, instead of being what is theunder side of the web as it is led to the machine, is the upper side,and as a consequence the upper side, which is last printed, is thecleaner. After being thus perfected the web is led around the roll 3 inthe opposite direction, and thence around the roll 4 to the deliverymechanism. It will be observed that the rolls 3 A are so positioned withrelation to each other and the impression-cylinders that the travel ofthe web in this case from the impression cylinder D to the roll 4 isexactly the same as the travel of the web in the former case from theimpression-cylinder C to the r0114, and thus the register with the partsof the de= livery mechanism is preserved, no matter which Way the web isled.

As shown in Figs. 1 and 2, the web is led to the printingcylinders fromabove. In many cases it is preferred to reverse the order and lead theweb to the printing-cylinders from beneath. Figs. 3 and A illustrate thecourse of the web when it is led from beneath. When the web is led frombeneath and it is desired that what is the upper side of the web as itenters the machine should be the cleaner side after being printed, theWeb is led past the roll 2, which in this case is below the impression-cylinders, and around the cylinder D to be printed upon its firstside, and thence around the cylinder 0 to be printed upon its ICC secondside, which is the upper side as it on: ters the machine, and afterbeing thus perfected it passes around the rolls 3 4:, which in this caseare located above the cylinders, and thence to the delivery mechanism.

If it is desired that the under side of the web should be the cleanerafter being printed, the web is led around the roll 2 and theimpression-cylinder O to be printed upon the first side, and thencearound the impressioncylinder D to be printed upon the second side, asshown in Fig. 4. After being thus printed the web is led around the roll3 in the opposite direction, and thence around the roll 4 to thedelivery mechanism, the rolls 3 4 being in this case, the same as in thefirst case, so positioned that the travel of the web from the cylinder Dto the roll 4 is the same as the travel of the web from the cylinder 0to the same roll.

It will be observed that the ink-distributing rolls c are so positionedas to leave a considerable space upon both the upper and under sides ofthe distributing -cylinders b. lVhen the Web is led to theprinting-cylinders from above, as in Figs. 1 and 2, the rolls f, whichtransfer the ink from the fountain to the distributing-cylinders b, arelocated below the cylinders b, so that the ink will be distributed bythe rolls 0 before being transferred to the form-rolls a. The onlychange in the inking mechanism necessary when the Web is led to theprinting-cylinders from beneath, as shown in Figs. 3 and 4, is totranfer the rolls f and fountains from the position beneath thecylinders b to a corresponding position above the cylinders, asindicated.

From the foregoing it will be seen that with the machine thus organizedit is possible without any change whatever to lead the Web to theprintingcylinders so that either side will be printed last, and thuspresent the cleaner appearance, thus capacitating the machine to meetthe Wants of different users in this respect; and it will further beseen that by very slight changes which can readily be made in thecompleted machine the web can be led to the printing cylinders fromeither above or below, and thus also meet the requirements of differentusers in this respect.

WVhat I claim is- The combination, with form and impression cylindersfor perfecting the web and a delivery mechanism for operating upon theperfected Web, of leading-rolls located to direct the web to either pairof the printing-cylinders at will and to direct it from either pair ofsaid cylinders to the delivery mechanism with its printed pages inproper register with the parts of said delivery mechanism, substantiallyas described.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in the presence of twosubscribing witnesses.

LUTHER (J CROWELL. Witnesses:

T. H. PALMER, G. M. Bonsr.

